provos told to stay away from Republican graves in E Tyrone

tyrone | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday April 07, 2009 21:16

by no provo - leaning towards RSF

they died for Irish freedom, not a sell out

East Tyrone Republicans are finished with Adams and McGuinness

A row between Sinn Fein and the Tyrone National Graves association is set to boil over at Easter Commemorations this Easter weekend

Last Year almost all of the Provo's East Tyrone Brigade left the Provo's and Provisional Sinn Fein leaving Republican Strongholds like Cappagh Galbally and Dungannon with no Sinn Fein Cumann

Almost over night the Tyrone National Graves Association became independant during the rest of 2008 they held a number of Commemorations to remember the 35th annivarsarys of Volunteers from the area the diffrence between these commemorations and past Commemorations was their were no political speaches held at the gravesides instead friends and family spoke about their loved ones it was said at the time that large numbers of Irish Republicans in the county many who had been the backbone of the struggle for the past 30 years had been staying away because of the Provo control of the events and their use of the dead to further their current politics when many in Tyrone were opposed to

Months before the planning for the up coming Easter Commemorations a large number of familys of dead IRA Volunteers approched the Tyrone NGA and said they didnt want the Provos using their loved ones graves as a propaganda tool they said they did not want speaches at the graveside and that they did not want wreaths laid on behalf of an Army that no longer existed

At the next meeting of the Tyrone NGA meeting the provos landed en mase busing in supporters from Armagh and other areas to try and secure control of the Tyrone NGA they failed in this attempt one of their members from the brantry area then tried to intimadate the meeting by reading out a statement from the now defunct P O' Neil stating that the Tyrone NGA was no longer in control of the Commemorations in the county and that Sinn Fein was now to take control of the Commemorations the speaker was told this would not happen as the East Tyrone Brigade was no longer aligned to the Provisional Movement and theirfore the speaker had no right to use the name P O' Neil to try and intimadate people at the meeting the speaker then said he was going to lay the so called Army wreath at Edendork any way to which he was informed by family members of IRA Volunteers buried their that they would remove it by force if nessacary

Then on Sunday the Sunday World carried an article on the controversy and since then the Provo's have now backed down and almost all of the Local Commemorations in East Tyrone will be independant. Republican Sinn Fein, meanwhile, will be holding wreath laying ceremonies at Edendork at the grave of Fian James McCaughey at 10 am on Holy Saturday and at the grave of Frank Ward in Carrickmore at 6pm the same day.